1800 Gallon Tank

Hi
Would certainly get a good estimate of the total cost BEFORE you start lol I got a glass door for free that is 28 x72x 3/4 Used it to make a windo in an above ground pond. Even though the glass was free spent a fortune on silicone .lol
I wouldn't do it again as cleaning the glass is a real pain not to mention the plants grow so much you can't see into the water anyway lol
Would suggest a lot of planning into plumbing. Would skip any kind of media on the bottom as it's far too difficult to clean. Grow your plants in pots or on driftwood ,also plan on access artound the entire structure .
Check out used furniture places for glass and of course be sure it's thick enough for the depth. In my case I designed the hole to fit the glass
Good luck with your plan. gary
 
What you need, my friend, is transparent aluminum.

scotty-767813.jpg
 
Thanks for the comments!
SickBum, I initially thought of wood, but termites in 1 of my other fishtank-stands convinced me not to do it. So I started checking and searching a bit on this.
The 'inspiration' for concrete came from Monsterfishkeepers, search for Todd's 2500 Gallon Concrete Freshwater Stingray...
That tank is done pretty much the same way that I have in mind.
Only difference being that I'll have the filter as part of the concrete tank, not separate.
Pretty sure the concrete can hold water as long as it is properly sealed, Think of it as a pool, which is sealed with paint / epoxy as well and with water containing chlorine, which I think is much more aggressive on the sealant than freshwater.

I'm not worried about the looks of the outside. Concrete will not be visible behind the front of Concrete Board which has the same looks as normal wood. That part is a matter of covering it.
 
Thanks for the comments!
Lol...InJuxHurYlem, one of my favorite Star Trek scenes..thanks for the laugh..

Gary, I hear you...the contractor doing the concrete work will get me a quote on it sometime next 2 months I guess when I've figured everything out.
He's about to finish my house-renovation and busy with jobs in my Factory, so I'm pretty happy with this guy.

On the media on the bottom, my plan is to have very course gravel...like 1-3 inch diameter. As mentioned in earlier posts, my idea is to have 2 pumps that return water from the filter through under-gravel spray-bars...
This would help me keep most fish-waste floating up and ending up in the filter while the gravel stays clean.
Fully agree on plants, I will likely start with only Drift-wood and scaped 3D background. Maybe potted or driftwood-plants later.

I will only be able to access the tank from the front, backside will be against the fence with the neighbor. Given the width of the tank I don't see any problems.
Because the tank is all concrete and 1 piece, I will not have any 'external repairs' anyway.
 
Luc,

I would like to make a suggestion for the top filter plate. Instead of a flat plate simply make it curved like a Cetus Sieve.

See: http://www.koipondcentral.com/filters/cetus-sieve_filter.html

I love the design in the link. By simply making the filter screen curved instead of flat it makes the filter self cleaning. For practically no extra expense or complexity you could greatly reduce the filter maintenance. Just a thought.
 
Could you do the concrete in a single monolithic pour? i.e. pour the concrete for the slab and walls at the same time eliminating the joint between the two?

If not, you could always have a liner built to make the structure water tight, like a pool. When you are looking for contractors you might consider talking to a pool contractor as they should be pretty familiar with the engineering involved with what you are trying to accomplish.

You might also want to check out ICF's (Insulated Concrete forms). They are gaining popularity here in the states as a new way of building. Basically the concrete forms are big Styrofoam "Lego blocks" with a hollow cavity in the middle that you fill with concrete. They make a very strong structure and INSULATED!!!! I don't know about Thailand but I would be concerned about keep the tank water warm. The ICF's would provide the insulation but the exposed sides of the walls would be Styrofoam. This may be useable with a liner or have said pool contractor spray it with gunnite?

The monolithic pour idea came from ICF construction techniques. Here they use ICF's for below grade basements and do monolithic pours to prevent water seepage problems.

How are you going to access the filter for maintenance and cleanings?
 
How are you going to clean the muck off of the bottom? Is there any chance you can make the bottom of the of the tank a V shape and put a 4" pvc pipe with the top ~90 degrees of the pipe cut away in the valley of the V? This would allow the muck to fall to the center of the V and collect in the open top PVC pipe. You could extend a portion of the PVC pipe without the 90 degree cutout outside of the tank and put a valve on it. Open the valve for a few seconds to flush the pipe of any accumulated waste. You would have to figure the screen size to put over the open top pipe to allow waste to enter but keep the stock out when flushing.

Just a thought.
 
I would like to make a suggestion for the top filter plate. Instead of a flat plate simply make it curved like a Cetus Sieve.

That's an interesting idea. Need to look into that. Would mean some changes to the overflows and need to source for a sieve-plate. Thanks oughtsix
 
Oughtsix, indeed idea is to make a monolithic pour, at the least for the tank. If too complex, I might do the filter separate, but in principle it should be possible to pour everything. I have seen the styrofoam build method. For Thailand, heat is an issue where I live with only 1 month with night temperatures dropping below 20 degrees celcius. Normally temperature is always between 25 at night and 30 - 40 celcius during the day.
I have 2 tanks outside where even with lights on, fans are enough to keep the temperature around 29'Celcius.
 
I am not certain yet on the draining of 'muck'. As mentioned earlier, my first idea is to use spray bars under the gravel that return water from the pumps into the tank. This would create an upward flow that would take rubbish to the top and in the overflow/filter.
However, this might not help in dead spots, so 1 idea is to have the spray bars around the walls of the tank spraying inwards with a 30 or 45' angle and combining that with a drain in the bottom.
Still, not sure if this idea would help without it being the actual drain as is the case with a normal pond setup.
I might try a hybrid, where I could switch 1 pump from filter-outlet to bottom-drain and pump-outlet from spray bars to drain-pipe. This way I could clean the tank easily during water changes...

Oughtsix, thanks for your suggestions, you're giving some very good food for thought. Cheers...
 
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